Skinner Butte watch party: The eclipse for locals

EUGENE, Ore. - Instead of fighting traffic to stake their place in the path of totality, more than 1,000 people gathered at Skinner Butte on Monday to take in the Eclipse.

The event, however, did not allow viewers to drive to the top of the butte for spacial reasons.

So instead, hundreds of people had to walk more than a mile to get the best view of the eclipse. For some, it was a nice exercise; for others, it was a little more difficult.

Delores Wilson and Sandra Dominguez have been best friends for more than 40 years, right here in Eugene.

Through all of those years, they've never hiked Skinner Butte, partially because one of them has a pacemaker.

"We didn't think we were going to make it," said Dominguez afterwards. "To actually see it - to actually be here and see it with so many people, and in Eugene. We didn't have to hassle with the traffic."

The best friends say that the struggle of getting to the butte was worth the experience they had.